The Arizona Board of Regents’ university governance and operations committee will meet Thursday to discuss the contract extension for Arizona State’s Kenny Dillingham that was reportedly agreed upon in December after Michigan made a push to poach ASU’s head football coach.
Dillingham’s proposed extension runs through 2030 and includes triggers that could take it through 2035. It calls for his base salary to jump from $5.8 million to $6.4 million with $100,000 increases each year, according to public files posted to the ABOR website.
More importantly, the contract amendment gives more money to support staff under Dillingham, who in 2023-25 has gone 22-17 with a 2024 College Football Playoff appearance following a swift turnaround from a three-win season in 2023.
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The current money allotted for assistants ($6 million) and support staff ($2.8 million) will increase from $8.8 million combined to $11 million under the new deal.
The extension comes with a requirement that ASU must “engage in an annual review” with Dillingham to look at compensation data from other Big 12 schools and “make good faith efforts to maintain salary pools and discuss the creation of other roles critical to the optimal execution of ASU football strategy.”
ABOR must approve the contract for Dillingham.
Kenny Dillingham’s contract extension increases buyout costs
Dillingham’s current contract asks for a buyout of $5 million if he were to have taken a job before Dec. 1, 2025, and that buyout decreases by $1 million each year.
ASU’s proposal increases the buyout to $9 million if he takes another job before Dec. 1, 2026. That decreases to $4 million in 2027 and another million each year afterward.
Termination language
The current contract says ASU can terminate Dillingham’s contract without cause, but in that event, it asks the school to pay Dillingham “liquidated damages 100% of the coach’s annual salary for the remainder of the contract term,” plus bonuses and unpaid trigger payments. It asks that Dillingham use “reasonable efforts to mitigate ASU’s obligation to pay liquidated damages by seeking comparable employment after termination of the contract.”
The extension adds language giving more leeway for Dillingham to “not be obligated to accept any position if such position is not in the best interest of Coach’s coaching career, both professionally and personally, as Coach reasonably determines in Coach’s discretion.”
Tuition for the little ones
Dillingham and his wife, Briana, announced the birth of their second child in January.
In a final bullet point in the ABOR presentation, the coach’s amended contract asks “ASU leadership to assist” him with fundraising efforts for the football program.
It also asks for ASU to cover K-12 education expenses, plus the cost of in-state tuition for undergraduate and graduate degree programs for the family.
Trigger extensions remain
Because of state law that limits the length of state employee contracts to five years, Dillingham’s has built-in extension triggers that extend the deal up to five more years. Those also include bonuses based on the number of regular-season wins for Arizona State.
A new trigger will give Dillingham a one-year extension if Arizona State sells 25,000 season tickets.
Here are the rest of the trigger events and bonuses:
Six (6) regular season wins and an invitation to an NCAA-sanctioned bowl game – one-year extension Seven (7) regular season wins – one-year extension with an additional increase of $100,000 applicable to the immediately succeeding contract year’s annual salary and each contract year’s annual salary thereafter during the term Eight (8) regular season wins – one-year extension with an additional increase of $200,000 applicable to the immediately succeeding contract year’s annual salary and each contract year’s annual salary thereafter during the term Nine (9) regular season wins – one-year extension with an additional increase of $250,000 applicable to the immediately succeeding contract year’s annual salary and each contract year’s annual salary thereafter during the term Ten (10) regular season wins – one-year extension with an additional increase of $350,000 applicable to the immediately succeeding contract year’s annual salary and each contract year’s annual salary thereafter during the term Eleven (11) regular season wins – one-year extension with an additional increase of $450,000 applicable to the immediately succeeding contract year’s annual salary and each contract year’s annual salary thereafter during the termFollow @kzimmermanaz
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